A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil WarPart 12: The Whig Ascendancy

THE SECOND PARTY SYSTEM (1824-1860)

The Second Party System was characterized largely by the dominance of the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whig Party, and by the disputes between them.

THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY - John Quincy Adams (1828) - Henry Clay (1832)

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY - Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) - Martin van Buren (1837-1841) - James K. Polk (1845-1849) - Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) - James Buchanan (1857-1861)

THE WHIG PARTY - William Henry Harrison (1841) - John Tyler (1841-1845) - Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) - Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

HENRY CLAY

• Henry Clay ran for President in 1824, the election that ended in the ‘Corrupt Bargain,’ and once more in 1832, against the incumbent Andrew Jackson.

• In 1832, Clay founded the Whig Party to support implementation of his ‘American System.’

• In 1836, the Whigs nominated three candidates to run for election as President in three different parts of the country. Clay was not one of them.

• In 1840, the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison to run.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON

• Famed for his defeat of Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

• Elected President on the promise of ending Andrew Jackson’s patronage system, establishing a new national bank, and giving ‘pre-emption’ rights to settlers nationwide.

• Took the Oath of Office on a cold day in April and delivered an Inaugural Address that lasted more than two hours.

• Died one month later.

JOHN TYLER

• Harrison’s death caused a brief Constitutional crisis regarding Presidential succession, but the crisis was resolved when his Vice President, John Tyler, ascended to the Presidency.

• Tyler had started out as a Democrat, but he joined the Whig Party out of opposition to Jackson and Van Buren.

• Nevertheless, Tyler was a strict constructionist who disagreed with much of his own party’s official policy platform.

JOHN TYLER

• Tyler believed that the President should set federal policy rather than the Congress. This led him to bypass Henry Clay in the Senate, which then lost him the support of the Whigs.

• He withdrew from running for re-election in 1844.

• Throughout 1843 and 1844, he dedicated himself to doing what Van Buren had refused to do and annex the Republic of Texas. At the end of his term, the Congress approved the annexation of Texas.

JAMES K. POLK

• In 1844, Henry Clay again ran as the Whig candidate for the Presidency, but the unpopularity of the Whigs under Tyler led to the victory of the Democratic candidate, James K. Polk.

• Polk promised to serve only one term and to achieve all of his political agenda in that time. He was able to keep both promises.

• Polk’s main interest was Westward expansion. He believed in the Jeffersonian ideal of a continental republic populated by yeoman farmers.

JAMES K. POLK

• While running for election in 1844, Polk promised to annex Texas even if this required an armed invasion of Texas.

• Mexico threatened war with America if it annexed Texas.

• Polk’s electoral victory was what led Tyler to ask Congress to annex Texas at the end of his term. Tyler wanted simply to avoid war with Mexico.

• Polk’s next priorities were the Oregon Territory and California, which belonged to Mexico.

THE OREGON TREATY OF 1846

Since 1818, the Oregon Territory had been governed jointly by the United States and Great Britain. Polk wanted to settle the question of which country would officially govern which parts of the territory.

In 1846, Polk reached a deal with Great Britain for the 49th parallel to serve as a border between the United States and Canada, extending all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

PREPARING FOR WAR WITH MEXICO

• Polk intended to acquire California from Mexico. He wanted the United States to possess San Francisco Bay to increase trade with Asia.

• He sent diplomats to Mexico to negotiate the purchase of California, but Mexico refused to negotiate until it received compensation for Texas.

• In response, Polk sent troops to the Rio Grande, under the leadership of Colonel Zachary Taylor, and prepared for war...

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil WarPart 12: The Whig Ascendancy